The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-10-15
ART IN THE HOME.
Why None But Pictures of Real Merit
Should BE Given House-Room.


Most men get their chief education
in the school of life andnot in academic
halls, and even those to whom fortune
opens the doors of the university SCI
dom take home with them the knowl-
edge of any other art than the art
poetic The arts of drawing and
music, it is true, have at last begun to
receive some attention in our public
schools, and this is well. Instruction
in the art design is also easily obtain
able in most of our large cities. The
fact, nevertheless, remains essentially
as stated-that what most people know
about art they have learned without
instruction, simply by using their own
eyes. Skill in art they have none;
knowledge of the principles of art lit
tie or none; appreciation of art, more
or less, according to the degree in
which they have been favored by cir
cumstances.
1t follows that the home must neces-
sarily be the chief nursery of art for all
but favored few But how and to
what extent is home education in art
possible? Certainly very little can be
done in the way of technical training
| apart from competent instruction; but
7 THAT which is of much more importance
than any formal schooling can be ac-
quired by most, namely, some appre-
citation of and consequent delight in
whatever appeals to the cultivated
esthetic sense. In point of fact, even
now, in our own country, that home is
the rare exception in which no picture
hangs upon the walls, to bear witness
to at least the blind cropping after that
which shall satisfy natures longing to
see either her real or her ideal self
painted upon the netted curtain of the
| human eye.
The influence of dwelling habitually
in the presence of a striking work OF
art can hardly be overestimated,
whether the work be of such a char
acter as to debase or to ennoble. The
pencil of the artist is bribed to make
the den of vice doubly alluring to the
intoxicated senses of the reveler, while
the glowing ardor of the religious de-
votee rises almost to ecstasy as he
gazes long upon some vivid representa-
ton of the tragedy of Calvary, AS are
the pictures upon the walls of the home,
so are the pictures hung invisible to all
but ourselves in the chambers of the
Imagination, where, night and day,
they make much of the real world III
which we live. Whether we dwell day
by day with picture or with human
being, the influence of the companion
ship is hardly greater in the latter case
than in the former. Who has not, Mt
some time in his life, been forcibly ir,-
pressed by the circumstance, utterly
meaningless in itself, of his eyes SEEM
ing omeet the gaze of portrait hang
ing upon the wall? Beneath the sub
tie influence thus streaming from a
lifeless canvas, many a beholder, no
doubt, has been swayed as by Il super
nal power, and felt himself urged on
or held back in some debated course.
1t is not every work of art which has
an ethical value; but the picture or the
statue which simply charms the eye and
goes no further may yet fulfill a worthy
mission-tor the simple enjoyment OF
beauty is as legitimate an affection of
the mind as any other. So that the sem
timent of the work be pure, we need not
demand of it n moral lesson.
One good work of art does more to
beautify the home than crowd of in
ferior productions. 1t is better to Save
our pennies for years, until with the ac-
emulation something really good can
be purchased, than to fritter away our
resources upon what will give no last
ing pleasure. Let us, if possible, have
pictures which, from their excellence,
there is no chance of our outgrowing.
This is far from impossible, even to
those whose circumstances necessitate
strict economy, now that the sun has
taken to being an artist and furnishes
to all corners excellent fac-similes of
the best that the skill of man has ever
been able to produce. The camera, the
graver's tool and the printing press
have brought to every mans door al
most every treasure of art -CAautau-
guam.